Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

[gugahulk]

Building my wood oven any help or advice from members would be awesome. This is my first time building an oven but I do have a little experience on brick laying. I just love it and do it for fun but love FOOD!!! :-)

[gugahulk]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

The base has started, Love this... Building my base out of chicago bricks, cost more but looks great. I am planning on making the base 4inches think of concrete does anyone recommend it to be more than that? Any Help would be great. I am also concerned that, my bricks are small compared to the ovens I see which all have cinder blocks. AM I OK?

[gugahulk]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

The oven is going next to my other 2 creations. Custom built Brazilian BBQ and Custom built stove and griddle station. The oven will be the grand finally... Any opinions or suggestions would be great.... :-)

[mrchipster]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

I was just in your neighborhood last week I wish I had known I would have stopped in.

You have a good start. Your bricks will be plenty strong, brick in compression is off the chart in strength.

Mine are just a veneer but here is my oven, also street brick. From St Paul streets but made in Chicago. $300 for 900 bricks from Craig's list.

As far as suggestions ... Well you already have great skills and a fantastic setup.

[almondsurf]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Wow Mr Hulk, that looks like it is going to be amazing. I used to live in brazil (Brasil) and it their meat is second to none. Now living back in the US, a good churrascaria is something I dream about. Good luck, it looks GREAT.

[DavidApp]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Hello

You have a great looking cooking area there.

One suggestion is to make sure you have room behind the dome to get the blanket and covering layer on. I thought I had plenty of room but have resorted to stuccoing the back section of my oven by hand. Stucco mix applied hand full at a time because there is not enough room for a trowel.

Someone in the group mentioned it before I started. I checked and thought there was plenty of room.

Spend time reading the various build threads. There is a wealth of knowledge to mine.

Insulate. Insulate. Insulate.
My oven is still over 150 degrees having fired 4 days ago.

David

[gugahulk]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

I was just in your neighborhood last week I wish I had known I would have stopped in.

You have a good start. Your bricks will be plenty strong, brick in compression is off the chart in strength.

Mine are just a veneer but here is my oven, also street brick. From St Paul streets but made in Chicago. $300 for 900 bricks from Craig's list.

As far as suggestions ... Well you already have great skills and a fantastic setup.

mrchipster I really wished you would stop by my brother, it would have been nice to make you an authentic Brazilian BBQ and share some ideas for my brick oven. Thanks for letting me know about the strength of the bricks. I know its strong but was not sure if it would hold the weight as its skinny. Buy you just gave me some confidence... :-)

I got my chicago bricks from a customer of mine so I got 3 pallets of old chicago bricks for FREE! Nothing is better than FREE!... :-) But the price you got them for is great as its $650 per pallet here in Miami.

Now your oven is amazing, love the set up and the way you have it all. I hope mine is half as good as yours. Believe it or not these projects I have done is my first time with mason work. I started all this in february and its my pass time to release my stress from work, and its been working. Thanks for the advice. :-)

[gugahulk]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Wow Mr Hulk, that looks like it is going to be amazing. I used to live in brazil (Brasil) and it their meat is second to none. Now living back in the US, a good churrascaria is something I dream about. Good luck, it looks GREAT.

Thanks almondsurf I actually never lived there... :-) Even though I am from there... I lived all my life in Miami but would go once in a while on vacation, and I love Brazilian BBQ, actually I love all BBQ. I am a meet freak. Churrascarias are nice but $$$ so I decided to make my own and have fun. Below are some picture of my latest meats. Thanks for the comments... I am just a beginner!

[mrchipster]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Beginner?? That food looks nothing like a beginner. Yummmm

I will let you know next time I am in your area and maybe take you up on your offer. Of course my wife (after looking at your photos) is now insisting we go down again.

[gugahulk]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Hello

You have a great looking cooking area there.

One suggestion is to make sure you have room behind the dome to get the blanket and covering layer on. I thought I had plenty of room but have resorted to stuccoing the back section of my oven by hand. Stucco mix applied hand full at a time because there is not enough room for a trowel.

Someone in the group mentioned it before I started. I checked and thought there was plenty of room.

Spend time reading the various build threads. There is a wealth of knowledge to mine.

Insulate. Insulate. Insulate.
My oven is still over 150 degrees having fired 4 days ago.

David

Thanks DavidApp, actually you make a great point. I planning on leaving 5 inches for my fire blankets and I have aout 18 inches of space so I can fit behind to do the work. I hope I am ok... what do you think?

About insulate, insulate and insulate.
I am really happy you brought this up. I want my oven to stay hot for a week if that is even possible after a fire... :-) So my plan is.

Floor of the Oven: I bought 3 insulation boards from forno bravo, they recommended me to have 2 but I want extreme insulation so I bought 3.

Dome and walls: I will be using 4 blankets of insulation, I think this will give me about 4 to 5 times wraps around my oven. Forno bravo told me I needed only 3 so I wanted an additional one.

My Goal... "please any members reply are welcome"
I need my oven to be hot for a long time, I want extreme insulation, My goal is obviously to make pizza but that is not only it, I want to bake bread and also cook beef ribs oven night, and large cuts of meet. So I need my oven to stay hot for days if possible. Please does anyone have extreme insulation and can give me the best advice. I need my oven perfect.... :-) Thanks.

[gugahulk]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Beginner?? That food looks nothing like a beginner. Yummmm

Beginner of Masonry, not FOOD... LOVE FOOD... :-) Thanks you are very kind MrChipster!

[almondsurf]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Your BBQ looks great! How do you season your meat. Some of my friends in Brazil who own Churrascarias say the only way to cook meat Brasi stile is to season with coarse salt... that't it. I think meat is good in all its variety though.

I think if you insulate with 2 layers of 8lb, 2' thick ceramic/wool blanket, that's about as good as you'll get. Also, it sounds like some use two layers of Fiber Board on the bottom as well. Hope that helps.

Parab?ns , o forno parece ?timo e a carne parece delicioso!

[gugahulk]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Thanks almondsurf,

I season the meat believe it or not with only salt. Rock salt not kosher salt as it will make the meat really salty. The secret of Brazilian BBQ is put as much salt as you can on the meat, ROCK SALT. the meat will look basically white. Cook the meat on a rotisserie skewer, once meat juices starts to come out from the meat to the salt the meat is ready to be eaten. BUT once ready to eat you take a stick and you beat the hell out of the skewer so all the additional salt goes away.

What this does is,... The salt will automatically seal the meat, keeping it moist and juicy. It will also protect the meat from burns at the same time putting the correct amount of salt into the pores of the meat seasoning it perfectly. This is the correct traditional way of making meat, also once meat is done there is no waiting for the juices, no resting at all. Eat while its HOT and Delicious. Here is a good video about how to make it right... Try it you will never have meat any other way.
VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BuQCD8eh9k

About the insulation you really think that is enough? I hope you are right as it will cost me less.. and money is always an issue, but I don't want to cheap out on the project as I want it perfect. I already bought 4 layers so might well as use it, but for sure I need more? Will I just be wasting money?

[gugahulk]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Can anyone help me choose the right concrete for my base? Which of these 2 options should I use? How many inches should it be? I was planning on using a 2 x 4 fill it up with concrete and putting steel bars in the middle, I want it to be strong as a diamond.

[DavidApp]

Re: Work of Love and Passion... Miami FL

Hello

I have 3" of fiber board under my floor which is fire bricks on their wide face. There have been ovens built with the floor bricks on edge for more mass but that will take longer to heat up. It is all a trade off.
I have 3 1/2 " of blanket over the oven and the stucco does get slightly warm after a hard firing,900 degrees.
So you should be good on the insulation.

I had 8" between my oven bricks and the wall which is clear but not good to work in clear.

David